~ October 30th – November 6th 2011

Can’t Get Online?

Can’t Get Online Week was an England-wide tour of Rural Broadband “notspots” conducted by John Popham with sponsorship from the Country Land and Business Association in October/November 2011. The tour visited communities in Hampshire, Essex, Norfolk, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Lancashire, North Yorkshire, Cumbria, County Durham, and Northumberland, asking local people to talk about the pain caused to their daily lives, at work, in education, and at home, by the lack of a decent broadband connection.

Two and a half years on, most of the communities visited still don’t have decent broadband, although some are on the list to be upgraded as part of the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme, and others are bidding for resources from the Rural Community Broadband Fund. One community, in particular, is using its own resources and local volunteers to provide 1000Mbps connections to remote rural dwellers. But, even if the needs of these communities are met, there are still many others out there who suffer exactly the problems detailed on this site.

Here are the key messages from local residents distilled into one video.